Another battle in Plymouth
Lessons learned?
A group of residents in Plymouth are battling Plymouth City Council (PCC) who want to develop on their local green space. The area near Wilmot Gardens which has been deemed "surplus to requirements" by PCC is due to have 5 houses built on it despite fierce opposition from locals and CLARA (Crownhill Local Residents Association) who believe the development goes against local policies. If lost, the nearest playable green space will be over half a mile away and on the other side of a busy road. Local policy states that people should have a playable green space within 400m of their homes.
The decision was sell off the land received no objections because nobody knew about it. Under current guidance, councils only have to put a notice on 2 days in the local paper. Clearly this is not good enough and at the very least, a notice should be put up publicly in a similar way to when a planning application is submitted. Not to mention, the notices for this sale were in the paper during the height of the covid pandemic when far fewer people were buying the paper. Is this fair? The arb report, done by Evolve Tree Consultancy, considers the oak and ash trees, which make up part of an ancient hedgerow, expendable. The ash trees were "marked down" to Category C, since the arborist assumes they will catch die back. This goes against the guidance by the Arboricultural Association and Forest Research. So far PCC have not formally responded to a Tree Preservation Order on the oak tree.
The original planning application was rejected as it was recognised that retaining a community space was vital. The latest application , which has fewer houses, received 41 objections but the PCC planning department have as yet refused to call it in to be discussed by the planning committee. The new proposal includes a minute community garden which campaigners say is inadequate for those who use the green for leisure, play and dog walking.
How can the loss of such an important green space be justified for such a small number of houses?